Plastic Bags more Green than Cotton or Paper

An article in The Independent discusses how one study shows Plastic Bags may be more ‘Green’ than paper or reusable cotton bags.

HDPE bags are, for each use, almost 200 times less damaging to the climate than cotton hold-alls favoured by environmentalists, and have less than one third of the Co2 emissions than paper bags which are given out by retailers such as Primark.

The findings suggest that, in order to balance out the tiny impact of each lightweight plastic bag, consumers would have to use the same cotton bag every working day for a year, or use paper bags at least thrice rather than sticking them in the bin or recycling.

The study also finds that most cotton bags are only used 51 times before being discarded. Personally I use almost every plastic bag I get twice, once for groceries and once for trash or other uses around the house. Interesting how ‘Green’ ideas aren’t always good for the environment…